*Price above based on 1-year term before application of coupon code/introductory discount. While you may pay less for the first year of hosting, unless otherwise indicated, the pricing displayed on this page is the 1-year term renewal rate. Star ratings based on a 0.5 minimum to 5 star maximum scale. Why you can trust this GoDaddy review. >**45-day money-back guarantee is for yearly payment plans. 2 days for monthly payment plans.

The negatives are also noteworthy. The sign up process can be confusing. The renewal rates are not listed on the website. The welcome e-mail does not include the information required to set up hosting quickly. Reliability proved to be less than 100%; and server speed was slower than advertised.

Despite a number of positive aspects, on balance GoDaddy has earned the NCM Online designation of NOT RECOMMENDED.

Rating

Review

HOSTING PLANS

Best known as a domain registrar, GoDaddy offers three low-cost shared hosting plans: Economy, Deluxe, and Ultimate. All include a free domain name for the initial hosting term, unlimited bandwidth, the newbie-friendly cPanel 11 control panel, as well as the easy-to-use Installatron apps installer. Support services are provided around the clock via phone, chat, or e-mail.

PURCHASE PROCESS

As is our practice for reviewing and testing, we opted for the Economy plan which was listed at 50% off for a total cost of $41.88 for the first year. After attempts to locate the renewal rates proved futile, we called sales support and were informed that web hosting renewal rates were not posted on the site. To determine the monthly renewal rate, we were told to add today’s cost ($41.88 for a 1-year term) to the initial term savings ($42.00) and then divide by twelve months ($6.99). While we had our answer, we certainly would have preferred to see the numbers in print.

GoDaddy cPanel 11 control panel. Click to enlarge.

SETUP

We try not to dwell on negatives, but if you plan to use a domain name you already own with your GoDaddy hosting account, the sign up process is confusing. There is no option to immediately associate your domain with the account. Further, while the “welcome” e-mail arrives within seconds of completing the sign up process, it does not include pertinent information such as the nameservers, FTP information, the e-mail settings, etc. While this information can be located after logging in to your account, it is not a fast, easy, or straightforward process.

Owing to the lack of information provided with new accounts, it took longer than necessary to set up our simple 1-page test site. One distinct positive was that GoDaddy shared Linux hosting plans utilize the cPanel 11 control panel (screenshot right). It includes the Installatron apps installer. And while we had never used Installatron before, its intuitive design allowed us to install WordPress quickly and easily. Note that GoDaddy shared Windows plans feature the popular Parallels® Plesk control panel.

TESTING

Speed and uptime testing for our GoDaddy-hosted 1-page test site began on 4/18/14 and was completed on 4/27/14 (see uptime test results chart below right). On April 25th at 4:18 PM (EST), the server began having problems. In all we received 10 TCP errors (10061) when the server began actively refusing attempts to access our test site from Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Florida, California, Montreal, London, Frankfurt, Paris, and Hong Kong. The problem continued for approximately 15 minutes. Uptime testing concluded without additional downtime incidents. In addition to affecting the reliability score, the downtime also negatively impacted speed testing results.

GoDaddy 10-day Uptime Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

Of the 13 worldwide testing locations utilized, site speed was fastest (0.7831 seconds) when accessed from Texas. Site speed was good when our test site was accessed from the U.S. locations that did not experience GoDaddy downtime problems, with an average speed of 0.8029 seconds. Site speed was slowest when accessed from Hong Kong, recording a decidedly sluggish average of 2.2527 seconds to load our test site (see speed test results chart below right).

All web hosting services reviewed by NCM Online are purchased and subjected to our 10-day test for uptime and speed. Not one of the faster hosts reviewed, GoDaddy recorded a distinctly unimpressive 10-day average speed of 1.8152 seconds to load our test site from 13 locations worldwide, and an average speed of 1.2104 seconds from 7 U.S. locations. Tested for uptime every 15 minutes over 10 days, GoDaddy produced a less-than-perfect 99.8944% reliability score.

GoDaddy 10-day Speed Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

Finally, we thought it necessary to address GoDaddy’s “fastest page load times” claim. While the website does include a result chart of GoDaddy besting the competition in a server speed test, they fail to indicate whether or not the test was administered by an independent third party. Further, they fail to identify the competition by name or provide test dates (screenshot below right). These types of dubious claims by such a well-known brand are frankly, disturbing and disappointing. GoDaddy should know better. NCM Online utilizes the services of Dotcom Monitor for speed and uptime testing. Our test results to date have found a number of hosts that provide faster page-load times with their lowest-cost shared hosting plans.

Cons

Less than 100% uptime

Sign up process can be confusing

“Welcome” e-mail lacks pertinent account information

Hosting plan renewal rates not listed on website

Dubious page-load speed claims

Conclusion

At times we found our experience with GoDaddy web hosting to be both frustrating and disappointing for the numerous reasons cited above. And while we continue to make use of their domain registrar services, we do not see adequate justification to utilize their hosting services. It would be our recommendation that the company spend a little less money on Super Bowl ads, and a little more on usability testing.

GoDaddy has earned 3.5 stars and NCM Online’s designation of not recommended.

Pricing and Features

Cheap website hosting company price comparisons based on 1-year term list price before coupon/promo codes or limited time/introductory offer discounts. These are the renewal rates for the second year of hosting. To ensure that you receive the most affordable GoDaddy pricing possible, please visit our Web Hosting Coupon Codes page for current discounts and special offers before making any purchases.

Plan

Economy

Deluxe

Ultimate

Free Domain

Websites

1

Unlimited

Unlimited

Bandwidth

Unlimited

Unlimited

Unlimited

Disk Space

100 GB

Unlimited

Unlimited

MySQL Databases (Linux OS)

10

25

Unlimited

MS SQL Database (Windows OS)

1

2

Unlimited

Email Addresses

100

500

1000

Google AdWords Credit

$100

$100

$100

Bing Ads Credit

$100

$100

$100

Facebook Ad Credits

$50

$50

$50

Fotolia Photo Credits

10

10

10

Premium DNS

X

X

SSL Certificate

X

X

Guaranteed Uptime

99.9%

99.9%

99.9%

Support

24/7

24/7

24/7

Cloud Linux

Windows Server 2012

cPanel (Linux)

Parallels Plesk Panel (Windows)

Free Applications (Linux 150+, Windows 70+)

Zen Cart

WordPress

Joomla

Drupal

CageFS (Linux)

Price per Month*

$6.99

$8.99

$14.99

*Prices based on 1-year term before the application of coupon/promo codes and introductory/limited-time offer discounts. While you may pay less for the first year of hosting, the prices displayed on this page are the 1-year term renewal rates.

**For yearly payment plans. 2 days for monthly payment plans.

Company Information

Best known for racy Super Bowl commercials and sponsorship of pro racer Danica Patrick, GoDaddyis the world’s leading domain registrar with (49,000,000 domains registered) and website hosting provider (5 million hosting accounts). The company has more than 12,000,000 customers worldwide, serviced 24/7/365 by 4,000 employees spread across 9 company facilities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, Washington DC, and India.

Using funds earned from the sale of Parsons Technology to Intuit for $64 million in 1994, GoDaddy Founder, Bob Parsons started Jomax Technologies in 1997. In 1999, the company was re-christened, GoDaddy. The following year, the firm became an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar.

As the face of the company and the driving force behind its success, Parsons’ philosophy has been to provide customers with low-priced, high-quality products and services backed by outstanding, round-the-clock support. Today, GoDaddy provides its vast clientele with domain names, SSL certificates, e-mail services, and feature-rich website hosting.

Fueled by annual revenues in excess of a billion dollars and a year-to-year growth rate of approximately 20%, in July of 2011, GoDaddy was sold to a group of private equity firms — KKR & Co., Silver Lake Partners, and Technology Crossover Ventures — for approximately $2.25 billion dollars. Today, Bob Parsons acts as the company’s Executive Chairman and remains a major stakeholder in the firm.

Vietnam veteran, Bob and his wife Renee have become leading philanthropists via their Scottsdale, AZ-based Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation. The organization has donated tens of millions of dollars to a wide range of charities and causes including the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDs, the Semper Fi Foundation (for severely wounded veterans) homeless shelters, day care centers, flood victims in Iowa, earthquake victims in Haiti, the Gift of Life Launching Program (for cancer patients), the Danica Patrick GoDaddy Domestic Violence Center, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the YMCA, the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Toys for Tots, the Arizona Humane Society, the Phoenix Zoo, the Boys and Girls Club, Chrysalis, HomeBase Youth Services, the Salvation Army, et al.

In December of 2013, Bob and Renee Parsons joined the Giving Pledge, an organization founded by Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Melinda Gates. The group’s members pledge to donate 50% of their wealth to charity.

PLEASE NOTE: While we attempt to provide timely and accurate information, any and all pricing, features, discounts, coupon codes, promo codes, etc. included on this page are beyond the control of ncmonline.com and are subject to change without prior notice.